2K Games Announces XCOM, a first-person shooter reimagining of the X-COM series of counter-UFO tactics games. The project is in the works at 2K Marin, developers of BioShock 2, and it is due for Windows and Xbox 360, though a release date is not set at this point. A screenshot accompanies the news, and the preliminary XCOM Website is online. Here's a bit:

XCOM is the re-imagining of the classic tale of humanity’s struggle against an unknown enemy that puts players directly into the shoes of an FBI agent tasked with identifying and eliminating the growing threat. True to the roots of the franchise, players will be placed in charge of overcoming high-stake odds through risky strategic gambits coupled with heart-stopping combat experiences that pit human ingenuity – and frailty – against a foe beyond comprehension. By setting the game in a first-person perspective, players will be able to feel the tension and fear that comes with combating a faceless enemy that is violently probing and plotting its way into our world.

Why must it always be FBI, CIA or some other lame agency!! It's rather revolting....Meh... Can anybody come up with some original theme anymore?!? As far as what I would expect from the game, maybe a healthy cross of Natural Selection (Soon to be NS2) and Fallout 3. Also Enforcer was a total failure.

Blackhawk wrote on Apr 14, 2010, 14:49:I don't recall anybody mentioning that SWAT 4 was a horrible game because it wasn't a 2d adventure.

Swat 3 was a classic game that won Tactical Game of The Year awards. It explored a new area in the franchise. Yes, it's roots may have been the Police Quest series but there is a reason why it wasn't called Police Quest 5...it was a different game completely. It didn't try to use the PQ title just to make sales.

Swat 4 was a steaming pile. It disappointed old fans of the series and essentially was hated so much that it killed the franchise. Dead.

Blackhawk wrote on Apr 14, 2010, 17:40:You can't criticize my logic until you improve your reading comprehension. I didn't say that an XCom FPS was a good idea. I could bring up X-Com Enforcer or C&C Renegade to counter that. What I said is that a spin off into a different genre isn't automatically a bad idea. Whether this is a good idea or not will have to wait until the reviews are out.

Oh, actually I can. What you SAID was that nobody stated SWAT 4 was horrible, and SWAT 4 was a cross-genre spin-off of Police Quest.

If that is meant to demonstrate anything about X-COM, then your logic is off the mark.

Let's break it down:

1. SWAT 4 is a good cross-genre sequel to Police Academy2. X-COM is a cross-genre sequel3. Therefore, X-COM (as a cross-genre sequel) isn't a bad idea/will be a good sequel/whatever result you want to stick here.

InBlack wrote on Apr 15, 2010, 08:24:Sure turn-based systems might be dead, but why not use the pause system instead??

Because they are completely different ? TBS is about managing resources as in action points per squad member. It's more like a board game... Pause mode cannot recreate that, it just helps with controlling mutliple squad members through a shooting, the resource game disappears.

Spin-offs based on the X-Com franchise continue to sell well enough that sequels keep getting made. Sure, they might not bring the profits that large corporate owned studios expect, but I dont see why an approach similar to Biowares (with dragon age) couldnt do well.

Make a polished strategy/tactical game that is easy enough to get into (and stay at that level) with a good story/graphics to keep the console crowd interested, and than add layers that the "drool" crowd never need bother with, but that will entertain and please the hardcore audience and gaming purists.

Sure turn-based systems might be dead, but why not use the pause system instead??

Hmm the more I think about it the more Im convinced its entirely doable and profitable. You just need a comptent studio to pull it off. Doing a standard FPS is just IP rape, unless it is pulled off extremely well. (Which is possible, although highly improbable)

Yifes wrote on Apr 14, 2010, 20:54:Was the first one any good w/ mods? I remember it getting some bad reviews.

Not really no. There were some shortcomings- No atmosphere, unlike the original one which had tons of it- Simplified strategic part (=less interesting)- Less diverse and more repetitive tactical part (less variety etc)- Bad difficulty curveIt was a semi decent attempt but still fell short of the original.

I wouldnt compare with Fallout3, that one still kept everything that made the previous ones good, and mostly Fallout is all about its rich game universe. X-COM had a shallow and cliché universe, what made it great was- very rich strategic part- very rich tactical part- TONS of atmosphere- Difficulty could be hard, without being frustrating.

Now nobody mentioned there was an actual X-COM FPS, called Enforcer. It was really not good at all.

As for the tactical part, ONE game made it correctly in 3D, it was called Incubation, and it was really good (again poor setting, but great gameplay - even with a hotseat versus mode !) - so modernizing the first X-COM and using 3D and all, is not impossible at all !

I'm surprised this thread has gotten this far without anyone directly mentioning X-Com Alliance, the X-Com squad-based FPS that was cancelled back in the day that was so heavily hyped.

This seems like a game in that vein, so mark me down as being excited.

Already mentioned. Alliance was to have a deep strategical layer, with research, manufacturing, resource and personnel management between missions. You had 4 specialists on each mission, and you could give orders or take control of each of them directly in first person. Sad that it was cancelled, along with Genesis.

This new game that "puts players directly into the shoes of an FBI agent" sounds nothing like Alliance.

Beamer wrote on Apr 14, 2010, 16:30:1) Do it like the original, but in first person. I think this is the weaker way. Let's be honest, halfway through X-COM you get tired of searching farmhouses (don't even get me started on finding the last damn alien in a closet in a freighter in TFTD - you could spend an hour searching for the last one.) This could get mundane very quickly. It sounds cool at first, but when you sit and consider it I think it just gets terrible. FPS games don't handle repetitive natures very well, unlike strategy games.

2) More scripted FPS game where X-COM has been formed as the international corporation, but you play a government agent not tied to them. You still cross paths with them as you work your investigation. This means you'd often find yourself in terrifying darkness alone, like your men did in early missions (especially if all but one were wiped out), but often find yourself in the middle of enormous battles in which you had your own objective aside from blasting aliens. An interesting twist could be playing on X-COM being a not-entirely-benign corporation. You could throw so many cool scenes into this and lead it down a linear plotline.

I disagree with your second idea. That strikes me as a waste of an IP and sounds like a generic government conspiracy FPS.

While I agree that things got boring in the 2nd half of x-com as you got more and more powerful, that's a design flaw, not a flaw with the concept of the game.

Simple solution: When you shoot down or invade an alien UFO, it's given a basic threat assesment. Anything under say moderate (easy, routine, milkrun) you can optionally dispatch a cleanup team. You won't get the same benefits that going on your own would provide, but it would let you focus on the more dangerous, more intense missions, instead of tin can 4765 which has three units of elirium and two greys hiding in a house somewhere.

Verno wrote on Apr 14, 2010, 15:49:What...? Dragon Age reportedly sold over 3m copies so far and I highly doubt most of them were on the consoles.

NEVER trust those cumulative sales numbers put out by game publishers. They'll always tell you shipped sales in the most crazy way. Like how Tekken 6 sold several million, when it sold only a few tens of thousands to customers.

I'd guess at least with 360+PS3, Dragon Age sold more on consoles, but Dragon Age isn't even the kind of game that sells real well on PC either, anymore.

Guess what is? Modern Warfare 2.

While it doesn't show concrete numbers, dragon age was a consistent top 10 seller in Impulse and Steam for months.

I'm sure it did pretty well on the PC. Most people I know who had the option of PC or console for Dragon Age chose the PC specifically for the isometric view and the more old-school combat.

Blackhawk wrote on Apr 14, 2010, 14:49:Funny that someone mentioned SWAT 4, which itself is a part of a series whose earlier incarnations included both an isometric strategy game (Police Quest: SWAT 2) and an interactive FMV game (Police Quest: SWAT) which were, in turn, spun off of an adventure series (Police Quest.)

I don't recall anybody mentioning that SWAT 4 was a horrible game because it wasn't a 2d adventure.

Seriously, though - the premise of "SWAT 4 was derived from Police Quest, so therefore an X-COM FPS is a good idea" is quite a stretch...and about four different kinds of faulty logic.

A equals B, therefore C must equal D!

By your logic

You can't criticize my logic until you improve your reading comprehension. I didn't say that an XCom FPS was a good idea. I could bring up X-Com Enforcer or C&C Renegade to counter that. What I said is that a spin off into a different genre isn't automatically a bad idea. Whether this is a good idea or not will have to wait until the reviews are out.

2K Marin? I bet when it's released it will be like Bioshock 2. They can't even get the aspect ratio and fov correct, to this day in Bioshock 2. 2K Marin are incompetent. I am not going to hold my breath.

Verno wrote on Apr 14, 2010, 15:49:What...? Dragon Age reportedly sold over 3m copies so far and I highly doubt most of them were on the consoles.

NEVER trust those cumulative sales numbers put out by game publishers. They'll always tell you shipped sales in the most crazy way. Like how Tekken 6 sold several million, when it sold only a few tens of thousands to customers.

I'd guess at least with 360+PS3, Dragon Age sold more on consoles, but Dragon Age isn't even the kind of game that sells real well on PC either, anymore.

The math just doesn't add up, feel free to add all of the NPD figures along with the announced total sales to get a very rough(doesnt include worldwide figures in NPD) idea

DA sold 450k in the first month between PS3 and 360. It sold 1.1 million by the end of the second month. According to the ever-reliable vgchartz it's at 1.56m for the 360. No frickin' idea where they pulled that from.

Strategy First bought it and put out a mod. They then tried to remake it three times, all of which were terrible and canned.

Now Bit-Composer has it. They almost exclusively do shovelware. I still think they have no chance of putting out something playable.

The people that can afford the JA IP and the people that have any interest in putting together a fun JA game don't overlap. Hell, the original JA team reformed and put itself out there to be hired as a group to make a game. No one came knocking.

If it'd be like Xcom, but the only difference is that instead of tactical isometric 3d battles you have FPS battles, I'd be all over this like a fat kid on cake.

But it's far more likely to turn into a by-the-numbers five hour single player FPS game where you shoot something that vaguely resembles a crab-man, while the story mentions something once about aliens attacking earth and an organization that fights back.

At least the developer is decent, so it might turn out to be a decent FPS.

Let's face it, the console crowd won't play a game like the original XCom. Therefore, it will not get made.

There are two great ways I can see this done:

1) Do it like the original, but in first person. I think this is the weaker way. Let's be honest, halfway through X-COM you get tired of searching farmhouses (don't even get me started on finding the last damn alien in a closet in a freighter in TFTD - you could spend an hour searching for the last one.) This could get mundane very quickly. It sounds cool at first, but when you sit and consider it I think it just gets terrible. FPS games don't handle repetitive natures very well, unlike strategy games.

2) More scripted FPS game where X-COM has been formed as the international corporation, but you play a government agent not tied to them. You still cross paths with them as you work your investigation. This means you'd often find yourself in terrifying darkness alone, like your men did in early missions (especially if all but one were wiped out), but often find yourself in the middle of enormous battles in which you had your own objective aside from blasting aliens. An interesting twist could be playing on X-COM being a not-entirely-benign corporation. You could throw so many cool scenes into this and lead it down a linear plotline.

Given the choice, as a developer, I'd choose B. I think B could smash. Not sure what 2K is doing at ths point. They've said they will have the GeoScan, but also said you're an FBI agent.